The uprising by workers in the Cavite Naval Yard was the pretext[2][3] needed by the authorities to redress a perceived humiliation from the principal objective, Father Jose Burgos, who threatened the established order.

Background

During the Spanish colonial period, four social class distinctions were observed in the islands. These were 1.) Spaniards who were born in Spain— peninsulares, 2.) Spaniards born in the colonies of Spain (Latin America or The Philippines)—insulares or Criollo 3.) Spanish mestizos, Chinese mestizos or ‘Indios’ (natives) dwelling within or nearby the urban city (or town) and the church, and, finally, 4.) Chinese or Sangley and rural Indios.[4]

Father Burgos was a Filipino criollo, a Doctor of Philosophy[citation needed] whose prominence extended even to Spain, such that when the new Governor and Captain-General Carlos Maria de la Torre arrived from Spain to assume his duties, he invited Father Burgos to sit beside him in his carriage during the inaugural procession, a place traditionally reserved for the Archbishop and who was a peninsular Spaniard. The arrival of the liberal governor De la Torre was not welcomed by the ruling minority of friars, regular priests who belonged to an order (Dominicans, Augustinians, Recollects and Franciscans) and their allies in civil government, but mistakenly embraced by the secular priests, majority of whom were mestizos and indios assigned to parishes and far-flung communities, who believed the reforms and the equality they sought with peninsular Spaniards were at hand. In less than two years, De la Torre was replaced by Rafael de Izquierdo who turned out to be a pliant tool of the friars.

The so-called Cavite Mutiny of workers in the arsenal of the naval shipyard over pay reduction owing to increased taxation produced a willing witness to implicate the three priests, who were summarily tried and sentenced to death by garrote on 17 February 1872. The bodies of the three priests were buried in a common, unmarked grave in the Paco Cemetery, in keeping with the practice of burying enemies of the state.[2] Significantly, in the archives of Spain, there is no record of how Izquierdo, himself a liberal, could have been influenced to authorize these executions.[citation needed] The aftermath of the investigation produced scores of suspects most of whom were exiled to Guam in the Marianas. Except for a few who managed to escape to other ports like Hong Kong, most died there.